Roy Eberhardt is the new kid in a Florida middle school. He has a difficult time adjusting to the new school and has to take on the school bully. Roy ends up uncovering a contractors plan to kill endangered owls. This is a heartwarming story about friendship, environmental conservation, and family relationships. This is a Newbery Honor book.

This book follows a young boy as he moves to Florida, makes friends and saves a group of burrowing owls. While he is unable to save his friend Mullet Fingers, he becomes more mature and more pleased with his life in this new state and he even is able to positively deal with a bully.

As a kid, I moved around a lot and books like this always helped me settle in a little better. Even though I didn't have the same adventures, I could make the most of it too.

1. Children can be asked to write about when something major changed in their life and how they dealt with the situation.2. Children can be asked to discuss how important environmental conservation is and how they can be a part of it.3. Children can go on a field trip to help clean up a park or small area of woods.

This realistic fiction describes the story of a boy named Roy who's family gets moved from Montana to Florida. At first Roy is badly bullied and does not enjoy he place he has been moved to, but he begins to shift his attention to a person he saw running along the street. Roy wonders who this mystery character is. In the meanwhile, there is a pancake joint opening up in the same town and Officer Delinko is trying to get to the bottom of the minor crimes that have been happening on the work site. Eventually we discover that the running boy is a nature enthusiast who is trying to save the small owls on the work site where the pancake place is about to open. Roy joins with this character, mullet fingers, and saves the owls with him and begins to love Florida a little bit more. ( )

Pat Tate (Carousel 23 (Spring 2003))Roy Eberhardt is being bullied by Dana Matherson, mainly because he is the new boy who has just moved to the school in Florida from Montana. A refreshingly different tale because Roy resolutely refuses to give in to the bully, and as a result of this positive stand he sees something mysterious which develops into an intriguing story. There is a connection with the tantalising title and cover and the delightful humour, together with the lovably quirky characters in this special novel, is most satisfying. My heart warmed to the policeman who fell asleep in his patrol car, and woke to find someone had painted all the windows black. The book feels very American but young readers will cope with the slight cultural differences, which may well enhance their enjoyment of the tale.

Nicholas Tucker (Books for Keeps No. 140, May 2003)Hiaasen must be the most entertaining environmental author there has yet been. Now addressing a younger audience for the first time, his latest passionate but also very funny novel jogs along paths already familiar to fans of his previous adult eco-thrillers. Set in his beloved but continuously over-developed state of Florida, this story features a wild boy out to defeat a Pancake company from building on land dwelt in by rare burrowing owls. Up against him are Curly, the grumpy, bald site foreman, Officer Delinko, an unfortunate policeman, and Chuck E Muckle, company chairman and ruthless entrepreneur. All this is witnessed by Roy, a new boy in the area who is also the target of his school's chief bully. How everything finally works out is a joy to behold, with enough one-liners to keep any reader happy long after the event. Category: 10-14 Middle/Secondary. Rating: ***** (Unmissable). ...., Macmillan, 288pp, D9.99 pbk. Ages 10 to 14.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Roy Eberhardt is the new kid--again. This time around it's Trace Middle School in humid Coconut Grove, Florida. But it's still the same old routine: table by himself at lunch, no real friends, and thick-headed bullies like Dana Matherson pushing him around. But if it wasn't for Dana Matherson mashing his face against the school bus window that one day, he might never have seen the tow-headed running boy. And if he had never seen the running boy, he might never have met tall, tough, bully-beating Beatrice. And if he had never met Beatrice, he might never have discovered the burrowing owls living in the lot on the corner of East Oriole Avenue. And if he had never discovered the owls, he probably would have missed out on the adventure of a lifetime. Apparently, bullies do serve a greater purpose in the scope of the universe. Because if it wasn't for Dana Matherson...

In his first novel for a younger audience, Carl Hiaasen (Basket Case, etc.) plunges readers right into the middle of an ecological mystery, made up of endangered miniature owls, the Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House scheduled to be built over their burrows, and the owls' unlikely allies--three middle school kids determined to beat the screwed-up adult system. Hiaasen's tongue is firmly in cheek as he successfully cuts his slapstick sense of humor down to kid-size. Sure to be a hoot, er, hit with middle school mystery fans. (Ages 10 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert